Tips, guides, and reviews about software, web apps, technology, mobile phones, and computers.

  • Firefox Desktop Turns Your Browser Into an Operating System (sort of)

    Firefox only:  With the advent of cloud computing and sites such as Gmail, Google Docs, and even the online version of Photoshop, it is clear that desktop computing as we know it is beginning to shift towards an internet environment.  Browsers are quickly becoming the focal point of all our daily computing tasks, which easily…

  • How To: Check Your Hard Drive Health With A Linux LiveCD

    Previously, I wrote a guide on monitoring your drive’s status with S.M.A.R.T. tools from a running system [see Check your HDD’s S.M.A.R.T. Status].  Although these programs work well for checking the live status of your hard drive, you may run across a situation where you cannot boot the operating system to access these programs. If…

  • Facebook Releases Desktop Application, Aptly Named Facebook Desktop

    Facebook – the world’s fastest growing social network – wants to keep you connected to your social network without the web browser.  Using their newly released Facebook Desktop application, you can connect with friends, view your stream, and publish information right from your desktop computer. To install Facebook Desktop, you first need to install the…

  • Gmail Labs Adds Google Web Search, Never Leave Gmail Again

    Let’s face it: Gmail is fantastic and Gmail Labs keeps adding features we didn’t realize we couldn’t live without.  New to Gmail Labs this week is the Google Search “experiment” which allows you to perform a Google web search through a sidebar widget – all without ever leaving Gmail.  The next time you’re in the…

  • Windows 7 Release Candidate to Launch Late April/Early May

    Microsoft has announced that a release candidate version of Windows 7 (a version with potential to be the final product) will be released to developers via MSDN and TechNet networks on April 30th, and more publicly on May 5th. Windows 7, which was released as a semi-public beta in January, has initially been well received…

  • How To: Add Panels (Toolbars) to a Secondary Display in Ubuntu 9.04

    If you’re using multiple monitors in Ubuntu, you may find it frustrating that the Panels (Windows users will recognize these as toolbars) are only available on your primary display.  This means that if you’re working with applications on a secondary monitor, you have to look back to your primary to do any application switching, as…

  • How To: Install Adobe AIR in Ubuntu 9.04

    Adobe AIR is a platform that allows software developers to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems.  A few examples of applications that are based on the Adobe AIR platform are Twhirl and TweetDeck. To install Adobe AIR in Ubuntu: Navigate to http://get.adobe.com/air/ and click the “Download Now” button.…

  • How To: Install and Configure Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu 9.04

    Although Ubuntu has fantastic driver support in recent editions, I had some initial difficulty getting the Nvidia graphics drivers (for my GeForce 8600GT) properly installed and configured in Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope”.  The built-in video drivers supported multiple monitors, but I was only able to drag windows halfway across the secondary monitor before they would…

  • Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” Released

    Ubuntu – currently the world’s most popular Linux distribution – released it’s newest version today named “Jaunty Jackalope” which offers some major improvements over previous versions.  Available in desktop, server, and netbook editions, Ubuntu 9.04 offers faster boot-up times (23 seconds on a solid state drive!), better device compatibility, and new software such as Firefox…

  • Apple’s App Store Hits One Billion Downloads

    At approximately 2pm on April 23rd, 2009 the 1,000,000,000th application was downloaded from Apple’s App Store since it first launched only nine months ago.  Although the App Store has had its fair share of problems (and it seems that developers are still getting stuck in the application approval process), this statistic is a significant milestone…